Archive | February 9th, 2016

Davao City – The city government of Davao was named 2015 Regional Gawad Listahanan winner by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regional office here.

As the department’s data sharing partner and advocate of targeting social protection beneficiaries, Davao City has been recognized through its program of increasing access to reproductive health services through the Listahanan database.

The City Government of Davao through its City Health Office (CHO) and City Social Services and Development Office (CSSDO) has aggressively embarked on No-Scalpel Vasectomy (NSV) and Bi-Tubal Ligation (BTL) as permanent options in reproductive health and population control.

“We constantly advocate these programs during Family Development Sessions (FDS) of the parent beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program to popularize the programs and further enhance parents’ knowledge and skills in parenting,” City Population Division Officer Jeffrey Fuentes explained.

Davao is the lone city that provides these programs regularly to Listahanan-identifed poor families, giving importance to Family Planning.

“With this, we were able to appreciate the potential of Listahanan data as reference in prioritizing individuals in the provision of health services specifically on reproductive health,” Fuentes pointed out.

CHO covers the 382 barangays in Davao City and reaches out to other provinces and cities as part of its interprovincial and intercity partnership project.

“The provision of family planning services through tubal ligation and vasectomy was envisioned since 2009 using the Listahanan data by providing the users free services and financial assistance of Php 3,000 as a form of economic cost while they are recuperating for a number of days out of their work and household chores,” CSSDO Chief Ma. Luisa Bermudo said.

“Listahanan data really helped us identify the right beneficiaries since the aim of these services is to help the poor and vulnerable families,” Bermudo added.

The award will be conferred during the DSWD 65th anniversary commemoration in Davao Region on February 16 under the PaNata Ko sa Bayan Awards which recognizes notable works of partners from civil society organizations, Local Government Units, People’s Organizations, volunteers, and donor institutions.

To date, DSWD Region XI has 36 data users from LGUs, four from the national agencies (NGA), and one from the private sector.

Spearheaded by DSWD, Listahanan is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are nationwide through family assessments. This system makes available to NGAs, LGUs and other social protection stakeholders a database of poor families as a basis for identifying potential beneficiaries of their social protection programs and services. (DSWD)